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It's not easy balancing the schedule of playing for a top-five women's basketball team along with classes, a social life, and other responsibilities. For redshirt senior forward Mikaela Ruef, add a part-time job as an engineer and a day that begins at 5 a.m. each morning and sometimes stretches all the way until 11 p.m. before she can take a breath.

The Cardinal Channel followed Ruef throughout her day's business on February 27, when Stanford hosted Washington for an 8 p.m. tip at Maples Pavilion. From the time she left home for her engineering job at Preston Pipelines on campus just before 6 a.m. to the moment she drove away from Maples Pavilion after the game shortly before 11 p.m., Ruef's day was chronicled to show the dedication and discipline required to maintain such a grueling regimen.

Ruef's dedication to her job, her academics (she will receive her master's degree in civil and environmental engineering at the end of March), and the Stanford women's basketball team, for which she averages career highs of 6.9 points and 9.5 rebound per game while being named All-Pac-12 honorable mention, exemplifies the all-around excellence which is synonymous with Stanford student-athletes.